Sometimes when we lose in court it is not a defeat for us; the EEOC sued on behalf of a trans woman her employer for discrimination and lost, we it a defeat for us?
This just goes to show how hard it is to win a case of discrimination; you have to make sure there are no complicating factors in the case. Do you come in a little late each day? Do you take smoke breaks? Do you talk to other employees? Do you take bathroom breaks?
All of these can be used against you. But you say everyone does that… yes but we are talking about you not the other employees. Any infraction of company rules can be used against you.
I managed a department at work for 25 years and when I had an employee who created problems such as being an alcoholic*, HR always told me to keep a record on the employee.
My advice to you if you think that the company is out to get you is to keep a record. Were you standing around talking to Alice and Jane and your boss only said something to you… write it down in your notebook. Did you come in 5 minute late and the boss yelled at you but not at the other employees coming in after you… write it down with names, dates, and places.
You have to be proactive.
I don’t know if it would have helped but maybe if Kerr kept a notebook about other employee’s behavior like names, dates, and places of other employees using the van for personal use might have helped her case that she was singled out.
It is very important that you keep documentation. They are.
*Yes, I did have to fire an employee for coming to work drunk and yes I did keep a notebook on him. Every summer he used to fall off the wagon (it was the 19th Hole that did him in each year) and every year we sent him to a detox center. We sent him three or four time to detox and this time he refused saying we were picking on him and he refused to go detox so we had to fire him.
I cried during the who process begging him to go to detox again, I cried when his wife came to pick up his personal stuff the next day begging her to get him to treatment and he could have his job back. But he refused and went back to the bottle.
The company looked at alcoholism and drug addiction as a disease and didn’t limit the number of times you went to treatment as long as you tried to kick the habit they were willing to give you a chance.
He was only one of two employees that I had to fire in my 25 years running the department, the other was for attacking another employee. I had one employee that we sent twice to detox because of a cocaine addiction, after the second treatment he was drug free.
Illinois Jury Rejects Transgender Worker’s Discrimination ClaimIt sounds like an open shut case so why did she lose?
Lexology
By Yvonne Norris Maddalena
July 17, 2018
A federal jury in Illinois has rejected a transgender employee’s claim that she was discriminated against and illegally fired after she told her employer that she was transitioning.
In 2016, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against Rent-A-Center East, Inc., alleging the company discharged Megan Kerr illegally in 2014, after over a year’s worth of efforts to terminate her employment or force her to quit following her news that she was transgender. According to the complaint, the EEOC alleged that the effect of the practices of Kerr’s supervisors at the relevant store in Rantoul, Illinois, was to “deprive Kerr of equal employment opportunities and otherwise adversely affect her status as an employee because of her sex.”
Rent-A-Center denied the discrimination claims. According to the company, in July 2016, Kerr asked her supervisor to use a company truck on a Sunday to deliver furniture for a local civic organization project. Although Kerr’s request was granted, Kerr improperly used the vehicle to move her own personal belongings, in violation of Rent-A-Center policy. Kerr’s personal use of the vehicle, according to the company, is what led to her discharge the following day.The jury went along with the company explanation.
This just goes to show how hard it is to win a case of discrimination; you have to make sure there are no complicating factors in the case. Do you come in a little late each day? Do you take smoke breaks? Do you talk to other employees? Do you take bathroom breaks?
All of these can be used against you. But you say everyone does that… yes but we are talking about you not the other employees. Any infraction of company rules can be used against you.
I managed a department at work for 25 years and when I had an employee who created problems such as being an alcoholic*, HR always told me to keep a record on the employee.
My advice to you if you think that the company is out to get you is to keep a record. Were you standing around talking to Alice and Jane and your boss only said something to you… write it down in your notebook. Did you come in 5 minute late and the boss yelled at you but not at the other employees coming in after you… write it down with names, dates, and places.
You have to be proactive.
I don’t know if it would have helped but maybe if Kerr kept a notebook about other employee’s behavior like names, dates, and places of other employees using the van for personal use might have helped her case that she was singled out.
It is very important that you keep documentation. They are.
*Yes, I did have to fire an employee for coming to work drunk and yes I did keep a notebook on him. Every summer he used to fall off the wagon (it was the 19th Hole that did him in each year) and every year we sent him to a detox center. We sent him three or four time to detox and this time he refused saying we were picking on him and he refused to go detox so we had to fire him.
I cried during the who process begging him to go to detox again, I cried when his wife came to pick up his personal stuff the next day begging her to get him to treatment and he could have his job back. But he refused and went back to the bottle.
The company looked at alcoholism and drug addiction as a disease and didn’t limit the number of times you went to treatment as long as you tried to kick the habit they were willing to give you a chance.
He was only one of two employees that I had to fire in my 25 years running the department, the other was for attacking another employee. I had one employee that we sent twice to detox because of a cocaine addiction, after the second treatment he was drug free.
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